As many of you know, my car has been giving me some problems. For those of you who do not know, I drive a 1990 st185 celica all trac. I am 23 years old and this is my first car. I am a new college graduate who is attending grad school. I have next to nothing in terms of spending cash, and my all trac has continued to stress me out.
list o' broken crap
Steering rack is shot ($300-$400 for replacement)
Speedo/odometer hasn't worked in 2 years, stuck at 149,xxx miles
Front passenger side cv axle is still busted (have replacement in garage)
Tie rod end boots are ripped
Oil leaking from cam seals ( I'm thinking this is the cause of my busted axle)
Rust in rear quarter panel below gas filler (Been working on this, now it is just a hole in the fender)
Rust in driver side rocker panel
Recently discovered that my front passenger side fender has a whole lot of bondo on it
Stupid idler pulley on the ac belt squeals like a mother (auto part stores do not offer a replacement part, $100 for toyota)
Engine mysteriously fails to turn on (irregularly) and turns off while running
Front passenger side speed/abs sensor wire is cut (tire tends to lock up on hard braking)
I really do love my car. It makes me happy to know that I drive an old school, awd, turbo, rally inspired celica. But I just do not know....
Based on what I see from what you said...
Ditch it, buy an appliance and get around stress free until you get your graduate degree and have time and/or money to play with a specialty car like you have now.
That's an arm's-length assessment.
Clem
Couple things. (I'll try to answer more in-depth later)
Steering Rack: Rockauto has one for $272 including core charge of $56. That helps a little
Rockauto also has the inner/auto tie rods for $80 or less for everything.
Same for camshaft seals. About $6 for both.
Your engine shutting off issue sounds ignition based. Start with cap and rotor, the S-series engines are awful about that. Good news is that they're cheap. If it's an actual bad dizzy or ICM, not so cheap.
Can you just solder the ABS wire back together?
Your Speedo/odometer... these cars have a two-piece cable going up to the cluster as far as i know. Make sure both are actually connected. When i got my 92 GT, they were disconnected. Not broken, had just come apart. Otherwise, you may have to start looking at getting another cluster. The gear that actually goes into the speedo is metal. What it goes INTO, is not. It's plastic, and they have been known to strip. If it was the actual speed sensor, you'd be having other issues with ABS more than likely, so this is probably simple fix.
IF it's the cluster, just grab one from a GTS. They'll be cheaper and easier to find, and you should already have an aftermarket boost gauge on one of these things anyways, since the stock gauge is useless and slow.
A/C idler pully... well. If it was me, i'd just remove the A/C. Otherwise, yeah. I guess you're shelling out $100 from Toyota. Or see if anyone on the forums has successfully used the part from another car. If they have, let me know what car and i'll see what i can do about getting one for you.
If you MUST ditch the car... find someplace to store it. You've only listed one thing on that list that scares me, and only one that should scare you. The rust. If it's not that bad, you'll kick yourself later for letting it go. Unless of course, you're in grad school for a lucrative career that will let you buy a cherry 93 soon after graduating. 
Alternatively, you could sell it to me for really cheap.
I'd say buy the cheapest pig you can, and mothball the ST and fix it as funds permit. I recently had a similar debacle with a local mazda club member looking to dump his FC after some electrical issues- and he ended up keeping it. It sucks when your dream doesn't work, but it makes it that much more victorious when it DOES work right.
I just want to point out one thing. I made my reccomendation based on what I think you should do...no necessarily what I would do.
I believe the "keep it posts" will come from the latter camp. Just sayin'...
Store it and buy an appliance. I stored my FB for five years because paying insurance on a two seater with a family of six wasn't in the budget. Glad I kept it. It's back in storage with a blown engine waiting on me to decide on a power plant for it.
The AC pulley should be easy. Borrow a car or bum a ride from a friend. But let em know it could take all day. Take off the idler and take it to a parts supplier. Not autozone or the such but somewhere that supplies dealerships and garages and such. Have em get you a replacement pulley. Just the pulley not the assembly. Or if it is a metal pulley you can try just replacing the bearings. Did the one on my old sc400 for about 45$ if not less, actually I think it was less than 30.
Toyman01 wrote: Store it and buy an appliance. I stored my FB for five years because paying insurance on a two seater with a family of six wasn't in the budget. Glad I kept it. It's back in storage with a blown engine waiting on me to decide on a power plant for it.
This^
I have nothing more to add because the suggestion to keep the Celica and buy the cheapest, fewest owner sub 100k civic/integra you can buy has already been mentioned..like 3 times. So do that.
Fix your damned car!
dj wrote: Fix your damned car!
yeah this is most likely what will happen. I just don't have enough money or space for a second car.
freaking love hate relationship with this damn car
smog7 wrote:dj wrote: Fix your damned car!yeah this is most likely what will happen. I just don't have enough money or space for a second car. freaking love hate relationship with this damn car
If it'll drive to Indianapolis, i'm sure we could work out a trade of some sort. 
Its really not that much fun having a car that a bunch of stuff doesnt work and no time to fix it. Im getting tired of my milano, and its not even that bad. It just needs the heater and high beams fixed, and motor mounts and suspension bushings (which i have already) installed. I dont have time to fix the heater, and it is completely non functional, and driveing it in the cold weather is really unpleasant. I cant really complain cause i knew it didnt work when i bought it, but I really want to get a nicer car.
Head over to MR2oc.com we love AWD 3sgte stuff. Might help you to decide to keep it, or help sell it.
It may be tough for you, but buy new or nearly new. When I was in college I purchased an inexpensive new car (Honda) and with it I bought peace of mind. Never had any repairs, never let me down and when I graduated I sold it and actually made some money on it. In fact I ended up driving a lot of my friends around as their high mileage used cars constantly were breaking down. Never regretted going that route.
yeah, i'm going to keep the bastard... I just need to save some money for all of the repairs.
for those interested in a nice all trac:
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/cto/2069738754.html
Well, I still have the car.
Everything from the original post has been fixed except for the rust.
Along with the rust, I now have a leaky distributor and leaky exhaust manifold to fix. It never ends!
But, I do have to say that I love my car. It may be old, it may be rusty, but it's a goddam rally car! 
I was just reading about this badass ST185 on Speedhunters and then you resurrected this thread. Coincidence?
http://www.speedhunters.com/2012/10/all-trac-fury/
Anyways, congrats on fixing your ride up! If you or a friend is handy with a welder, you could probably get patch panels from a junkyard Celica and fix up your ST185.
If that is rusty, then I guess I am in trouble with my WRX.
Glad you kept it that thing is sweet! If you ever decide to let it go give me a call... 
dude, that thing is MINT for a 20 year old Toyota in my neck of the woods.
Those of us south of the Mason-Dixon line have a much different idea of rusty than you northerners.
I'll snap some pictures of the rust, it's getting pretty bad.
Glad to see you kept it Smog7. These things are getting rarer all the time. I've got some rust to fix on mine but now that I'm in south Texas I'm not too worried about it getting worse. Hang in there my brother!
Just to play devil's advocate, I think you should get rid of it. In fact, you should just let me have it.
In all seriousness, I think alltracs are awesome and i'm super envious that you have one.
They are problematic cars. But they're very hard to find & they will eventually be going way up in value. Want to trade for a rust free red '96 Celica GT that needs nothing? In Oregon? OK I lied it needs a clutch and tires soon.
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